Why does Swadia suck so bad?

[Amagic]

It seems that Swadia is the weakest faction, ever. I know they got the strongest cavalry and other units are pretty great too, but as a faction they're horrible. The problems are numerous: Lords hate eachother ALOT, there's always a feast and those fatasses rather stuff themselves with roast pig rather than defend their lands, they can't win a single battle, their marshall is always the target of denounce missions and so forth. That kingdom is a nest of problems.

Yet I started out with them.

I did everything I could. I turned the tides of impossible battles, I married into a royal house and gained respect from other lords, I fought besides them and took castles back. Yet, the kingdom wasn't making any progress at all. Whenever I left, the lord i had been with gets defeated, castles keep taken back and swadia is always fighting too many enemies at once "for the sake of honor". Well good King Harlaus, how about you shove that honor up your ***.

So I took my knights and dumped their useless asses, going to conquer the Sarranids.

After weeks of quick strikes and rapid advancement I had finally gotten Sarranids down to one castle, which I decided to leave alive and make peace. So for the first time in weeks i took a look at the world map and.. HOLY ****. Swadia was down to Praven and Senugzda castle. It seemed everyone owned a part of Swadia. Nords had a few castles and Suno, Khergits had Dhirim, Rhodoks had Uxkhal and Vaegirs had the rest. Really it shocked me to my virtual bones.

So I'm asking does this happen in your games too? Swadia is too easy to conquer or too hard to defend? And what do you think is the main reason for such a sucky state they're constantly in? I think it's the big distances between fiefs and the kingdom having no natural defences, being vulnerable to attacks from all sides.

 

[Count Edmundus]

Yes, in my old game the Swadians got their asses handed to them by Nords and Rhodoks. They were left with one castle and town, where they were still feasting. But at my current game, which is at day 350. They are doing pretty well. They are staying away from wars with too many factions and are still holding their old lands. The marshall is doing good and defending their lands. And its all thanks to the diplomacy mod. I think who holds Dhirim gets the most wars.

 

[austint1121]

I have never heard of the Swadians sucking so bad. In my games the
Swadia always seem to be a threat to me.
I guess a bunch of chain reactions set the Swadians in a bad position in your game.

 

[Amagic]

I have never heard of the Swadians sucking so bad. In my games the
Swadia always seem to be a threat to me.
I guess a bunch of chain reactions set the Swadians in a bad position in your game.

I SAVED them, how could the reaction to that f*ck them up so bad? I was the only one who ever won a battle in that kingdom of fatties.

 

[Amroth]

Central in a sea of enemies.

 

[The Dominator]

Swadia borders EVERYONE even the sarranids just a lousy training field seperating Sarranid lands and the ripe lands of Swadia

 

[Hughes]

I recently started a new game and yes, Swadia is getting a major beat-down. Like you, they're down to Praven and a few castles, while the Vaegirs, Nords and Khergits have divided up the rest of their lands.

I've decided to try to maintain the balance of power (to keep Calradia divided) and save Harlaus' fat ass in what little ways I can. Without becoming a vassal of King Feasts-A-Lot, here's how you, too, can help:

- If you see a message that a Swadian lord's been captured, look him up in your Notes, find out where his family lives and ask them for a quest to rescue him. Bust him out -- he can carry on fighting and you get a nice reward. Don't rescue lords Swadia takes captive.

- Talk to Swadian guildmasters and try to get the quest "Convince two lords to make peace". If you pull it off you can keep Swadia from hopelessly fighting multiple enemies, and earn a 12k reward at the same time.

-  The "Raise X Swadian Knights" quest. Supplying 10 or 20 top-tier troops to various lords during a war can go a long way. Fulfilling other quests can help too, such as lending them companions, and so on.

- Destroying local bandits and, most importantly, bandit lairs can also help Swadia's overall health. I also trade with their cities, bringing in shortage items and buying exports (ale, wine), though I doubt this helps very much.

- If they are really in trouble, you can beat up some enemy lords on your own, and pay reparations to the enemy faction afterwards (it usually only takes about 1,000 denars to get them to like you again). The lord you beat up will hate you though.

 

[I AM HOBO OF DOOM]

swadia is always my first target theyre in the worst position and have at least 2 enemies at once when i start a new game,theyre stupid king harlous feasts too much and the marshals are idiots.

 

[Hughes]

That's way harsh dude

 

[F-Boisier]

I started a new game joining Swadia only. Playing on high difficulty, good AI etc etc. We own Narra, Ergellon castle and the whole Kingdom has not lost a single fief since I'm defending everywhere. Dhirim is about to fall (100 men in garrison after multiple assault/defenses), Uxkhal has been assaulted many times and I'm sharing the defense with the marshal army (which I don't join) We're at war with Nords Vaegirs and Rhodocks. Khergits have lost too many fiefs and has been staying at peace for over 100 days now...

Being a Swadian lord is hard, you have no time to trade, you're always at war, attacking or defending. I set up a few businesses but don't have time to marry... girls shall wait for me ...

I joined Swadia as soon as I could to prevent them from loosing too many fiefs...

 

[Sarejo]

Behavior and quarrels between Lords are random, or dynamically generated, so the Lords hating each other is just, well, bad luck. The problem with Swadia is it's location. It shares a border with virtually every faction, but Sarranids.

In my game, though, they are very weak but still alive: They have 1 town and three castle. Nords only have Tihr, Khergits are gone.

 

[morphwan]

For me, I think it's swadia's central position that makes them so weak. They've got great cavalry and the rest of the troops are decent. But the fact that absolutely everyother faction can strike at the vitals of swadia without having to travel the whole of the kingdom and face their men in battle, leaves them at a disadvantage. It's terribly easy for other factions to isolate sections of Swadia and devor them whole. Plus the multi war thing just makes them easy meat.

 

[Frosty]

They suck because you joined them obviously... Jokes

 

[Amagic]

I recently started a new game and yes, Swadia is getting a major beat-down. Like you, they're down to Praven and a few castles, while the Vaegirs, Nords and Khergits have divided up the rest of their lands.

I've decided to try to maintain the balance of power (to keep Calradia divided) and save Harlaus' fat ass in what little ways I can. Without becoming a vassal of King Feasts-A-Lot, here's how you, too, can help:

- If you see a message that a Swadian lord's been captured, look him up in your Notes, find out where his family lives and ask them for a quest to rescue him. Bust him out -- he can carry on fighting and you get a nice reward. Don't rescue lords Swadia takes captive.

- Talk to Swadian guildmasters and try to get the quest "Convince two lords to make peace". If you pull it off you can keep Swadia from hopelessly fighting multiple enemies, and earn a 12k reward at the same time.

-  The "Raise X Swadian Knights" quest. Supplying 10 or 20 top-tier troops to various lords during a war can go a long way. Fulfilling other quests can help too, such as lending them companions, and so on.

- Destroying local bandits and, most importantly, bandit lairs can also help Swadia's overall health. I also trade with their cities, bringing in shortage items and buying exports (ale, wine), though I doubt this helps very much.

- If they are really in trouble, you can beat up some enemy lords on your own, and pay reparations to the enemy faction afterwards (it usually only takes about 1,000 denars to get them to like you again). The lord you beat up will hate you though.

I'm afraid you have a few weak points there.

Suggestion nr.1 - Propably the best way to help them. I've done this alot but it's very hard in nord towns, where the prison guard and castle guard are basically next to eachother.

2 - Convincing them isn't easy and only helping marshals would benefit the kingdom, seeing as this quest is rather uncommon and the chances of one party being the marshal, it will be again difficult.

3 - Your doubts are correct. Isn't really worth it unless the bandit party is 40+ strong and even then chasing them will be a waste of time when the kingdom is at war.

4 - Very risky. Could make your faction go into war with them, even worse if you have your own kingdom.

And I remember why my Swadia fell rather quickly. The king kept making the same lord marshal but they sucky part was, I had denounced him a dozen times, and if that damages rep with other lords, you can figure why they lost

 

[The Dominator]

ummm Ive seen Swadia DOMINATE...i started new game joined the awesome Nord then...POW war with swadia and Khergits and Rhodoks war with swadia too...but now Rhodoks have been devoured by Swadia Khergits are dying and we nords arent faring much better.

 

[Puritan]

ummm Ive seen Swadia DOMINATE...i started new game joined the awesome Nord then...POW war with swadia and Khergits and Rhodoks war with swadia too...but now Rhodoks have been devoured by Swadia Khergits are dying and we nords arent faring much better.

You sure you're not doing anything to tip the deck in their favor?


Swadia was doing alright in my current game, Holding Praven, Suno, Uxhal, and Veluca, until I helped take Veluca then crushed thier main army and captured Harlus outside of Dhirim. They lost thier other three cities to the Rhodaks, Vaegirs and Nords, and still cling to life in the  Tevarin castle.

It was like the third Partition of Poland.

 

[irman]

Although swadia borders 4 other factions and close enough with sarranid, in my games swadia was not that bad, though it seems difficult for them to expand.

In most of my games, it is almost always Khergites who got screwd, since they are poor siegers and poor siege defender as well.

 

[Bobsama]

Although swadia borders 4 other factions and close enough with sarranid, in my games swadia was not that bad, though it seems difficult for them to expand.

In most of my games, it is almost always Khergites who got screwd, since they are poor siegers and poor siege defender as well.

I've found that the key to winning is to take out one decent faction at first and then using their troop tree in lieu of your own faction's.

 

[TheLethalJoke]

Why? Because I'm killing them.

Oh. You mean in general. The most obvious answers are already mentioned. Being surrounded, being divided, all the feasting instead of fighting...
...It'd be a real party if they didn't have to defend themselves.
And if they don't, hey, easy target!

 

[subzero22]

In my game they pretty much got wiped out in the early 300 days. They only have 1 town left and about 5 or so lords seem to still be there 300 days later. They seem to stay at peace now and almost always stay in the town. They lost most their lands mainly because the marshal kept attacking their town's castles and i was wiping out the lords so they couldn't retaliate. I did get a town and a couple castles. Rhodoks took some of thier land also. Once they had that one town left Nords made peice then went to war with Rhodoks. Except for a town and a couple castles I took most their land.